


Place Your Mark Upon My Skin, Place Your Mark Upon My Soul

by mariekjepower



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, Gen, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26519599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariekjepower/pseuds/mariekjepower
Summary: Jester’s soulmates all get a special spot on her wall.Of course there is a big archway, with a bright forest on the other side, and the fey creatures the Traveller mentioned in his stories.There’s a picknick on a beach, with a wave that curls just like the one on her hip and a tea set that matches the pretty teacup.In a world where people have marks that help them find their soulmates, an unlikely bunch of misfits have a fairly large number of them.
Comments: 57
Kudos: 220





	1. Lonely but not alone.

Caduceus is born to two loving parents. He has ten fingers, ten toes, and a healthy cry. But no soulmarks. Not yet. Nothing to worry about, he might be the first.

When Caduceus is 24, his aunt Corrin comes home from a trip. Alone. The mark in her neck, once a bright blue, has faded to grey.

Caduceus is 40 when his sister Clarabelle is born. He loves her from the very first moment. She’s lovely. He’s jealous of her from the very first moment. The orange butterfly on her elbow is lovely.

He knows that his parents worry. He’s 45. The latest any of them had gotten a first marking was his father, who was in his mid-twenties when his mother was born.

Caduceus prays. He’s not alone. He has his family. He has the Wildmother watching over him. He doesn’t ask for much. When he finally dares to utter the question in his prayers, the winds that blows over him is warm, comforting.

_Is there anyone out there for me? Do I get to have a soulmate?_

_Yes._

Caduceus is 57, and there is something wrong with the grove. There is a corruption, and it’s growing. None of them know what to do. Aunt Corrin, Colton, and his mother Constance get ready to leave the grove in search of answers. They don’t know how long they’ll be gone, but probably half a year at the most. Still, goodbyes are not easy, and his mother is taking her time. She hugs Caduceus tightly and he hugs her back with all his might. As she steps back and straightens out his mussed up clothes, she frowns.

“What is that?” his mother asks.

“Hmm?”

Constance pushes the collar of his shirt to the side and gasps.

“…You have a mark.”

He practically runs inside, to check in the mirror. There, just above his collarbone, is a mark. A book with a flame over it.

Even though he’s inside, a warm wind blows some hair into his face. Almost teasing.

_I told you so._

His family leaves over the years. His soulmarks appear over the years. He’s not alone.

Bren is born with two soulmarks. One on his left arm, one on his right. By the time he’s old enough that his curious mind wants to know everything, he has two more. The Teacup is joined by an ocean blue Wave and a Storm Cloud that is vaguely in the shape of wings. The Book With The Shadowy Hand is still alone on his left, but no less special. Bren wonders. Bren’s mind always wonders. Who are they? Why is one of them set apart? How much older are the ones he’s had from birth?

Bren celebrates the birthdays of the ones he knows. He’s good with numbers, he can remember the dates when he’s told, no matter how young he is.

Four turn to seven. His best friends growing up are not them. They have marks of their own. But they’re young. They’re smart. They’re going places. They will find them.

Bren is fifteen when he and his friends join the Soltryce Academy. His heart soars and he hopes that he will find his soulmates between those like-minded people.

He doesn’t.

Bren is sixteen and is taught that his loyalty to the Empire must come before loyalty to soulmates. Astrid cries as her leg is carved open in two spots, where crystals get placed into. Eodwulf is silent, his jaw clenched and looking straight forward, as the single mark on his lower back gets opened up to place a crystal too.

Bren has seven marks. Bren had seven marks. The Empire comes first.

Fjord is lonely, tears running down his face, crying without a sound. He’s different, they say. He’s short, he’s chubby, he has big teeth. Everyone reminds him of that whenever they please. Everyone feels bad, but somehow they feel better if they make him feel worse.

Fjord is lonely, but not alone. He lies on his bed, other kids around him asleep, watching his three soulmarks in the dark. They’re in a line, the Teacup at the top of his left arm. The Fire Book is below that. The third is a Storm Cloud. He might be alone right now, but it will not be forever. There are three others out there for him.

He slowly strokes the marks to comfort himself. Then a part of his arm warms up. His jaw drops open, as right below Storm Cloud, another mark appears. It is a clenched fist, brown skinned knuckles wrapped in blue. The hand looks ready to fight.

Fjord smiles, welcomes the addition to his arm by rubbing it softly. Fist is just a baby now. But maybe, just maybe, Fist will be willing to punch the mean kids for him when they grow up.

Yasha has seven marks. Six of them are in a line along her spine. A seventh is on her wrist. Three small, blue flowers. Yasha is six when she figures out that Zuala is her Flower, when she sees the other girl with the exact same flowers in her hair. Zuala has only one mark, a grey cloud with lightning. It’s on the front of her shoulder and Yasha often places a hand on Zuala’s shoulder in a way that makes their marks touch.

The Skyspear declares them sisters in war.

The word sister never sits right with Yasha.

When they’ve taken the Marking, Yasha takes Zuala apart. She can’t put in words what she wants to say, just puts their marks together again.

Thankfully Zuala has always been better with words.

“Don’t worry, Yasha. No matter what happens, I will always be _your_ flower.”

It settles something in Yasha’s chest.

She still doesn’t figure out she’s in love with Zuala until she’s twenty, when the other woman kisses her.

“You didn’t bring me the flowers to show that you like me?” Zuala asks when Yasha admits how new the insight into her own feelings is.

“No,” Yasha says. “I just brought them because you like them.”

“Oh Yasha.”

They marry.

They get caught.

They try to get away.

Only Yasha is successful. And as she runs, her wrist grows cold and the beautiful flowers on her wrist, the flowers showing her bond with her wife, go from blue to a dull grey.

Her mind goes blank.

Genevieve is born with seven soulmarks. Six of them are in a broken circle on her hip, which makes both Genevieve and her mom think that there might be a soulmate that isn’t born yet.

The seventh mark, the one apart from the others, is an archway on her shoulder. That soulmate she knows from a young age. The Traveller is her best friend. He has a cupcake on his ankle and she _loves_ that her mark is something so nice and sweet! It’s almost as nice as meeting one of her soulmates so young. She knows her mom only met her soulmate, Genevieve’s dad, as an adult, so _late_.

It’s also great that she can talk about soulmates and soulmarks with her best friend, who isn’t hurt when the subject is mentioned.

Genevieve talks with and to the Traveller a lot. He encourages her to be mischievous, for sure, but also to do things that she finds fun. Being bored is a crime in his book and while she’s stuck inside, Genevieve makes sure she’s never bored. She tells the Traveller stories she makes up herself. She spies on the people visiting the Chateau. She sings with her mother.

Drawing and painting become a hobby that never bores her. Genevieve uses the walls of her room as canvas and makes them bright and beautiful. It makes her mother smile. Her little pranks make her mother giggle. Her telling jokes makes the Traveller laugh.

She’s not Genevieve. She’s Jester.

Jester’s soulmates all get a special spot on her wall.

Of course there is a big archway, with a bright forest on the other side, and the fey creatures the Traveller mentioned in his stories.

There’s a picknick on a beach, with a wave that curls just like the one on her hip and a tea set that matches the pretty teacup.

There is a guy getting comically punched in the face by a fist wrapped in blue and getting shot by a crossbow from the other side.

There is a fireplace with a book open in front of it, a separate flame burning on top of it. The scene has a large window, and on the outside a storm is raging. All the art on her walls get additions and changes over the years, but this is the one that gets cards, purple on the backs, added next to the book when the final mark appears.

When she has to leave, it’s her own fault. She pranked the wrong person, and has to leave to save her own life. The Traveller is proud. Her mom is sad. Jester is both, proud of her prank, sad that she’ll have to leave her mother behind. At the same time, she’s excited. She’s sure she’s going to meet her other soulmates. And her first soulmate will never be far.

Veth is a strange young girl. That’s what she’s told by all the others around her. She has a different outlook on life. Her voice doesn’t sound nice. Instead of one or two, like most people, she has seven soulmarks. Six of them are on her chest, visibility dependable on the neckline of her shirts. The last one is a vial with a green liquid, placed in her neck.

They are not around her. She is not alone, but still, she is lonely. More so when the boys and girls her age start finding their soulmates. Some become incredibly close friends. Some become romantic partners. But no one has a group of marks matching hers. No one has a mark that represents Veth. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what a mark for her would look like.

By luck, by chance, by a game, she does meet a boy. His name is Yeza, and it’s weird, as one of their first interactions ever is a kiss. But afterwards they talk. They get to know each other in the days, weeks, months that follow. They fall in love.

Yeza also hasn’t found his soulmate. He carries a single mark, that of a crossbow. Sometimes they talk about their marks. Wonder about the people that are their soulmates. They both admit that it’s hard to imagine loving someone more than they love each other. Even more so when their little Luc is added to their family.

“He’s perfect,” Yeza whispers, that very first night where they’re three instead of two.

“Yes, he is,” Veth agrees, softly stroking the cheek of the sleeping baby. Their sleeping baby.

They get to watch their little boy grow. Luc gets his own soulmark, a little knife below his knee. He’s a happy and healthy baby and his parents couldn’t be more proud.

Their life is good, until it’s not.

Veth is Veth, until she’s Nott.

She got her family out safe, but she pays the price. Not with her life in the traditional sense, but with her life as a Halfling being over. Even after getting away from that horrible Goblin Clan, there was no way she could go home. She couldn’t even prove she was Veth with her soulmarks, hidden as they are by this curse upon her.

She could have tried. Yeza might have believed her. But she isn’t Veth. She’s Nott the Brave.

Beau is an angry teen. She’s confrontational, she’s in people’s faces, and her parents hate it, which makes her do it more. It makes her do different things. Stealing and reselling wine, among other things. They don’t hate it enough, or they don’t love her enough, to actually deal with her themselves though. No. When they have enough of it, they send her away to the Cobalt Soul.

Other than the martial arts, she doesn’t care much for their lessons. Until one of the younger teachers starts a lesson on soulmates and soulmarks. She was forbidden from speaking of them at home – rumour around the house was that her father didn’t have one at all – and people around town thought her impolite if she asked about the marks on their bodies upfront. But here, questions are encouraged.

Beau learns that the soulmarks belong to soulmates, family of the heart. Some are platonic, some are romantic. People carry marks that somehow are an image of the persons they are linked to. It’s something Beau could almost call beautiful, if she was sentimental like that. But it means she has a family, a large family out there, with seven marks along her side.

So when she receives a letter from home - no, not home, not anymore - telling her she got replaced by a baby boy, she decided that it’s time to go. She has a true family out there, and she’s going to find them.

He gasps for breath as he comes to, but it’s hard to take in air. He tries to sit up, then pushes up, pushing earth away from his body that’s covered in it.

He’s confused.

He doesn’t remember. Nothing. When he start being capable of functioning like a person, he’s been taken in by Gustav’s people. They’ve asked around, but no one knows who he is, so now he’s one of them. They ask him questions, of course. But he doesn’t know, so he gets named Mollymauk Tealeaf and it’s as good as any, he supposes.

Molly knows nothing, but his body paints a picture. Seven marks on one leg, brightly coloured and various shapes. Three on his other leg, faded in a way that makes them almost invisible, but still there and _what does that even mean?_ Nine red eyes, spread around his body. He tries to cover the creepy ones, the red eyes, with ink, but it doesn’t work. Instead he incorporates them in bigger tattoos.

What he doesn’t touch are the brightly coloured marks on his legs. It makes him curious. Especially when taking in the faded ones on his left leg, the ones on his right might be just _his._

Molly will not get defined by an unknown past. And they are his future.


	2. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> By fate or by chance, they find each other.

Jester giggles as she runs and runs and runs away from the guards. The guys can’t take a joke – the picture of the unicorn she drew on the front of their office turned out really good! She turns a corner, ducks behind a chest and casts her duplicate, letting her run on and making her duck into an alley as soon as the guards catch sight of the illusion.

“There she goes!”

She giggles some more when they sprint past her. As she stands up and dusts of her skirt, she notices eyes upon her. A man, a Half-Orc, is watching everything happen with wide eyes. Jester puts her finger over her lips.

He frowns a bit, and Jester decides to confuse him into keeping his mouth shut. She walks over, pulls one of the donuts she bought earlier out of her bag. She puts the donut in his hand, he looks like he has no idea what to do with it or what is happening. Just like she wanted. She gives him a pleasant smile, taps his shoulder in goodbye and darts of.

“What the fuck?”

Fjord is still confused when he sees the girl again. Confused about what happened on the ship. Confused about the weird powers he has now. Confused about that weird interaction.

“Hey, donut girl!” he calls after her.

The blue Tiefling turns around and when she sees him, she gives a smile. “I’m actually more of a cupcake, but I can see where you got those mixed up, so I’ll forgive you this time.”

Laughter escapes, Fjord can’t help it. She’s a weird one, but in a good way, he thinks. “I’m more partial to cupcakes too,” he tells the girl as they get closer, tapping the mark on his arm. Her eyes move to the soulmarks.

She gasps.

“THAT IS ME!”

Fjord jumps in surprise, and so do multiple people standing around them on the street.

“Oh man, I kind of left home to see if I could find my soulmates, you know, among other reasons, but I never thought I’d find one of you so soon!” The girl is bouncing, then grabs his arm. “I have all of those as well, well, except the cupcake of course, because that’s me, but all the others! You don’t have the wave, so you must be the wave yourself! Did you know? Did you find the others?!”

Fjord blinks, trying to keep up with the waterfall of words coming from the apparent Cupcake Girl. “I, I, no, you’re the first. I… You’re my soulmate?” He actually found a soulmate?

“Yes! I’m so glad I found you!” Cupcake Girl gives him a hug that is a lot stronger than you’d expect for someone her size. Around them there are some cooing noises, people thinking it’s sweet.

“Maybe we should go someplace where we can sit and talk,” Fjord suggests, feeling his cheeks heat up a bit under the unexpected attention.

“Oh, sure! I know a place where they make really good apple pies, let’s go there,” Cupcake Girl says, and somehow Fjord is not surprised.

“Lead the way. My name is Fjord, by the way.”

The girl gives him another big smile and does a slight curtsy. “Jester Lavorre. Nice to meet you, Fjord.”

“Hello! We saw your fire and were wondering if you were a fellow traveller and if you wouldn’t mind some company?”

Beau bolts upright at the sound of an energetic voice. She was half asleep and has to blink a few times before she can make out the two shapes standing on the other side of her campfire.

“Uh, sure. Free land, and everything, right? You’ve just as much right to camp here as I do.”

“That may be, but we wouldn’t like it if we were bothering you,” the other figure says. This second one seems to be a guy, while the first one is an excitable girl, a Tiefling by the looks of it. “We were just checking if you’d be okay with the company for the night, safety in numbers and the like.”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Probably safer, as you said.”

“Cool! I’m Jester, and this is Fjord. He’s one of my soulmates!”

“Jester, you don’t need to tell _everyone_ we meet,” the Half-Orc named Fjord says.

“Of course we do!” Jester says, sounding a bit scandalized and Beau guesses there’s no going back to sleep just yet. Small talk. Joy. “We have to talk about soulmates, or how are we going to find the others?”

“We found each other, didn’t we? And your Traveller found you.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t figure it out until the second time we ran into each other. What if we run into a soulmate, _don’t_ talk about it, and we never find them again?”

“The girl has got a point there,” Beau says. “Maybe I should talk to people about it. Haven’t tried that yet.”

“See, Fjord! She agrees with me!” Jester says.

“I guess so, I mean, wandering around hasn’t gotten me anywhere yet,” Beau says. She sits up, and pushes her clothes away from her side as she goes. “I’m Beau, and if you see anyone with marks like these, point them my way.”

The other two stare.

Then Beau gets tackled into a hug by Jester. “Fuck, what are you doing? Get off.” But the girl is rambling and decidedly _not_ letting her go.

“And I didn’t think we would find another one so soon but things like these are actually meant to be and so maybe this is how it’s supposed to go, you know? Finding one after another and everyone being together!”

“Jester, let her breath,” Fjord breaks into her rambling and _finally_ Jester lets her go.

“Personal space, okay,” Beau mumbles as she straightens herself out. “So yeah, fuck. You’re not joking? That worked?”

“Not joking,” Fjord affirms, holding out his arm. On the inside of his upper left arm, is a line of soulmarks very similar to her own.

“That’s dope, man. Which ones are you?”

“Well, I am the cupcake, and Fjord is the wave, but he doesn’t have that one of course. Mine are on my hip, right Fjord? That wave that represents you is lovely.”

Fjord seems to choke on nothing for a bit. “Yeah, yeah. Beau, which one- oh, look at her hands, Jester. She must be the Fist.” Fjord moves over to let Beau look a bit closer, and the one mark she hasn’t seen before is indeed a fist, clenched, like it’s ready to punch someone, wrapped in blue cloth like her own.

“Okay, that’s cool. So you already knew I’m down to fuck someone up if needed.”

Fjord snorts. “The thought crossed my mind, yes.” His expression grows suspiciously soft, like he’s remembering something fondly. Beau sighs lightly. Her travels have not been for nothing.

“But see, Fjord!” says Jester, breaking the little moment of silence. “I was right! We need to talk about the marks!”

“By the gods, now she’s never going to let it go.”

Yasha smiles as she watches her friend flit between tables. Molly is a people person and can read them so well, it’s almost a show to watch all on it’s own. Every time Molly moves to a new table, Yasha’s gaze lingers on the table he left for a second. Some people smile. Some look a bit confused or amused. All of them look interested in what Molly had to say about the Carnival.

She sees Molly take in two tables at the back, close to the end of the bar. Even Yasha can see that there is some tension there. Molly looks over his shoulder at her, gives her a grin and a wink, and moves in.

“Well, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of people more in need of a good time in my entire life.”

Yasha holds back an amused snort and instead gets a drink while Molly works his charm. The blue Tiefling is into it, even more so when Molly says he reads fortunes. He gets a few copper from the girl and takes out his cards. He starts shuffling them with a flourish and the girl, Jester she said, suddenly stops talking and her eyes grow wide.

“The cards…” Jester takes a hold of Molly’s wrist, and Yasha readies herself, a hand on her sword. But the girl doesn’t attack him, she just holds his hands still to look at the cards. “They look the same, but you’re… But…”

“What’s wrong, Jester?” the woman next to her asks, a similar tension visible in the lines of her body as Yasha herself feels.

“We might have found another!” Jester claps her hands excitedly and then quickly takes a card. She holds it to the arm of the Half-Orc on her other side. Yasha can’t really see what she’s showing from where she is, but Molly’s jaw drops open.

“Ha! I’m a set of cards? That’s fitting.” Molly laughs, but around the tables people start freezing up.

“Yeah! I’m this one, and this one is Beau!” Jester says as she points out what are probably soulmarks on the man’s arm. Then she turns to the human woman. “Come on Beau, show him!”

Beau blinks for a second, but then stands up, pushing her clothes out of the way and showing of a line of soulmarks on her side. “Yeah, I have the cards too, here, and this wave is Fjord.”

Yasha loses track of the conversation from that point on. She’s just trying to keep breathing.

_Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic._

She barely manages to keep herself in check, a hand on her greyed out mark on her wrist.

_I can’t lose another one._

The first chance she gets, she’s gone.

Nott watches with wide eyes as Beau shows of her soulmarks. They match with the ones she had!

…Had. She can’t show them her marks anymore. How can she convince them that a scary little goblin is a part of their colourful group?

Her eyes glide over the proudly shown soulmarks on Beau’s side. Right there, between all the familiar marks, is one she has seen before, but not on herself. It’s the crossbow that Yeza has.

Yeza, her husband, is her soulmate.

_These people_ are her soulmates.

She puts a hand on her crossbow and stands up.

Caleb watches in silent fascination as Beau shows her soulmarks to Molly. It’s been years since he last saw the images and Caleb has to resist the urge to get closer and look at them, _study_ them, remember…

He could show them the cards. He could, but should he? They look so happy, so excited, why would they want a soulmate as awful and broken as him?

He rubs his arms and tries to slow his breathing, but he’s having a hard time until he sees Nott walk over to their table.

“I uh,” she starts nervously, clearing her throat multiple times. Nott pulls out her crossbow and puts it on the table in front of Beau. “I think that is me.”

“Another?! Oh my goodness, this is the best day ever!” Jester yells. She practically jumping up and down in excitement.

Caleb can’t lose the one person he’s started to trust. He feels safer with Nott close by.

It might be one of the hardest things he’s ever done, but he slowly, methodically, unwraps the bandages on his right arm, just past his wrist.

He takes a deep breath.

Another. Counts down to himself. _Drei. Zwei. Ein._

“I have something to share as well.”

“Caleb, you too?” Nott asks and within seconds, she’s back at his side. Caleb can breath again.


	3. The Show Must Go On

It is hard, to have to step away from his newfound soulmates to get back to work. They all promised Molly to come to the show that evening, and they can all talk afterwards. It’s only hours away, but still, it’s stupidly hard to leave that interesting group of individuals that are _his soulmates._ His. Not the ones that belong to a past life, but the people belonging to the bright marks. Five of the seven, all in one place. 

But he has a job to do. The show must go on, doesn’t care for individual things like finding soulmates. 

He looks over his shoulder at Yasha, giving her a grin, but she isn’t looking back at him. She’s still following him like usual, but she is looking down, a frown on her face. He falters for a moment, realizing what she’s looking at.

They’ve all seen the greyed out flowers on her wrist. No one asked her, not as far as he knows. Your past is your past and no one pries, not with the carnival they’re traveling with. A lot of people working under Gustav have complicated pasts, they all know that much, and they leave it be for the most part, unless someone wants to share.

Yasha hasn’t, but the mark gives a fairly good indication of a lot of hurt in her past. Losing a soulmate… 

Molly grimaces a bit. It must be hard, seeing him find his soulmates. He goes over to her, puts a hand on Yasha’s shoulder. She blinks, looks up.

“You know you’re part of my family, right? Newfound soulmates or no,” Molly says softly.

“Yeah…” It’s a whisper, and not one that sounds very convinced. Molly takes a hold of her face, and pulls her in a bit, kissing her on her forehead. She almost flinches under it, so he steps back, giving her some space.

“Things will be fine, you’ll see. I’ll make sure of it.” 

“You can’t promise that.” Her voice is so quiet, and Molly doesn’t like it, doesn’t like seeing her like this. He sighs.

“I’ll do my best, then. I can promise you that. You’re my friend, Yasha. That means something to me.”

Yasha gives a nod and moves past him.

“We have a job to do,” she says. The show must go on.

“So what do we do now?” Jester asks when Mollymauk and his friend Yasha have left. She’s almost bouncing in her seat with excitement and Fjord smiles a bit before answering. 

“We have a day to spend in town, at the very least. We can’t really make plans without including Mollymauk in them.” He looks at the other table, rising an eyebrow at the two there. “I mean, I’d like to figure out what this means for all of us together, and Jester and Beau seem to be on the same page on that. I don’t know if you’re interested in that, I wouldn’t want to assume.”

Caleb and Nott share a look, and Caleb whispers something at Nott, who nods her head at him.

“Yeah, we would like to see where this goes for now.”

“Cool!” Jester exclaims, clapping her hands. “Man, three in one day, this really was meant to be!”

“It would seems so,” Caleb says. “For now I’d like to go around town a bit, I want to see if there are interesting books I can find.”

“Books? But you’re already carrying books, aren’t you?” Beau asks, gesturing at Caleb’s side. Fjord watches as he opens his coat a tad, and there are indeed some books there. 

“Caleb is always interested in more books, in learning more. He’s very well read, you know,” Nott praises the man next to her, who seems to shrink a bit under the attention. 

“I like to read, ja.”

“So your mark being part book is spot on,” Beau remarks looking down at the mark on her side. Fjord grins, looking at his arm. It’s strange, to be able to put faces to the marks he grew up with. A good strange, but strange.

“Can you guys show us your marks? Mine are on my hip, so that is totally not suited to show in public like this, but yours are on your arm, right Caleb?” Jester asks, bouncing over to the other table and reaching out to the man. 

“Nein.” Caleb pulls back from her, holding his arm pressed against his body and turning it away from her. 

“But…” Jester looks confused and sad, almost instantly getting a ‘kicked puppy’ look upon her face. “I just want to-”

“I can’t show you either,” Nott says, stepping protectively in front of Caleb. “You have seen your mark on Fjord and Beau, right? No need to make anyone undress.”

“I guess…” Jester still looks sad for a moment, but she doesn’t seem capable of staying sad for long. “I have known mine for a long time though, I have another soulmate that I’ve know for most of my life! Do you have other soulmates?”

Silence. Neither Nott nor Caleb answer her and Fjord decides to step in. “Maybe give them some time to get used to all of this before overwhelming them with question, Jester,” he tells her in a calming voice, aimed at easing the others as well. “You’re kind of used to knowing a soulmate, but not everyone is. I had to get my head on straight after meeting just you. And they’re finding five soulmates at once.”

“Let’s get out of here, go around town, checking for books and shit,” Beau suggests. “We’ll just have a chill day until we can talk with the six of us tonight.”

As they walk through town, Caleb can’t help himself. He keeps peeking at Fjord’s arm, trying to catch a glimpse of the soulmarks on there. He tries to be subtle, but it seems he isn’t when the other man catches his eyes.

“Have you seen your own before?” Fjord asks, a bit quiet, as if to not catch the attention of the women in front of them. 

“Nein, I can’t say I have,” Caleb admits. His eyes widens a bit as the Half-Orc stops walking and shows his bicep. 

“Here, this is you, yeah?” Fjord points at an open book with a flame over it. Caleb shudders a bit, the image fitting him better than he would like. The flame… 

_Burning-_

He takes a deep breath, barely can keep himself in check. He looks at the other marks. All so familiar and strange at the same time, after not seeing most of them for years. He catches himself as he starts to reach out towards the marks. Caleb instantly takes a step back and doesn’t know what to make of the soft look on Fjord’s face.

“It’s kind of weird, isn’t it?” Fjord says, starting to walk again, not lingering on the aborted movement Caleb made. He’s silently grateful for it. “Meeting people you’re somehow destined to meet? You hear and see it all the time, but it actually happening after so long is strange.”

“It is,” Caleb affirms, not really sure what else to say. Fjord thankfully doesn’t seem to mind his short answer.

“Running into Jester was such a surprise, and we met Beau only a few days ago. It’s weird, how it lines up like this. Maybe we meet the Cloud and Teacup in the coming days as well. Maybe even tonight. Who knows?”

“Molly, we’re here!”

Mollymauk turns around and there they are. Jester, the one calling out to him, is rushing over to him and she takes a hold of his arm. He really likes how open and forward she is.

“Not a shy bone in your body, is there?”

“You got that right! Did you see that in the cards? Did you read your cards to know more about us?” She asks excitedly. He grins back at her.

“Oh dear, I don’t need my cards to figure that out. Your personality shines bright enough for everyone to see.”

Jester beams up at him, and gives him a big hug. He hugs her back and laughs as he watches the rest of them look on with a mixture of amusement and amazement. He keeps an arm around Jester’s waist as he points towards the large tent. 

“There it is, the place where your mind will be blown. Today has been a special day already, and let me assure you, it’s just getting started!” Molly gives them a wink. He knows he’s laying it on a bit thick, but it’s part of the show and it seems that most of them get that. Jester is either following his lead on this very well, or the starry eyed look is completely legit. He’s usually able to get a good read on people, and thinks he figured her out pretty well, but there is something mischievous in this one that keeps him on his toes. 

Beau is glad to see Mollymauk again, but she can’t help to glance around a bit as the Tieflings ramble on. 

“Hey Molly,” she interrupts them at one point. “Where is that friend from earlier?” That woman looked amazing and Beau liked her protective attitude towards one of Beau’s soulmates. She wouldn’t mind getting to _know_ that one. 

Beau watches as Molly’s face goes through a journey, from curious to amused to maybe a bit sad?

“Yasha is around, I’ve caught glimpses of her, but…” He moves in a bit closer, and it seems the bright guy has a serious side. “Soulmates… are not a good subject for her. She’ll need a moment, I think.”

“What do you mean?” Jester asks, just before Beau herself can do so.

“Not my story to tell, dear. But not everyone has a happy ending.”

A moment of silence falls over the group, but not for long, as Molly has a job to do and it involves being happy and loud. 

In the end Yasha is the one keeping hold of their weapons during the show, something Nott isn’t too happy about. For one, being without weapons as a Goblin seems like a dangerous thing, even if the people around them are focussed on the show. But she also thinks the tall woman is a bit scary. All blacks and whites and maybe a greyed out soulmark on her wrist? It’s sad but also makes Yasha more mysterious and thus scary.

At least the woman stays close to them during the show, so their weapons aren’t far if things go south.

Things go south.


	4. We're All In This Together

It’s a mess. People died, the Crownsguard are being difficult, Yasha ran off and Molly… Well, he got arrested with Gustav and Bo. Okay, fair, he knows he wouldn’t be here if he’d kept his mouth shut. But them being so gullible was too tempting and them being so in their face and judgemental about the carnival rubbed him the wrong way.

Molly does appreciate both Gustav and Caleb trying to keep him from being arrested, and glancing around as they’re walked to the stockade, he sees some of his soulmates following behind from a safe distance.

As they’re brought up in front of the Lawmaster, a Dwarven woman named Norda, he tries to keep up a front and hates how he can hear his nerves as he speaks. In the end it thankfully doesn’t matter. Gustav takes the blame and Bo stays by his side, but Molly is released.

“Well, you’re out of chains! That’s great,” the Lawmaster says. “Doesn’t mean your absolved of the investigation. So, where are you staying? You and your compatriots?” She gestures to Fjord and Jester, who came in with them all.

“Oh well technically we all just found each other today, technically. We’re soulmates, you know!” Jester speaks up.

“Good for you. Technically, as far as I’m concerned, you’re all together as a part of this investigation, soulmates or no.”

They get warned to behave, to stay in town, and told to get out.

“Mollymauk,” Fjord starts as soon as the Crownsguards are out of earshot, “I don’t mean to pry into your business, but you really didn’t have anything to do with this, right?”

“No, I have no idea what happened here. I’ve been with them for a few years now and nothing like this ever happened before.”

“So you don’t think the girl…” Jester starts, but he stops that.

“No,” Molly says, shaking his head hard enough that his jewellery makes some noise against his horns. “Her singing is just an act, just a show.” He tells them a bit more, before sounds of footsteps and chains interrupts them. Turning around, they see two guards with Beauregard in between them.

Molly laughs.

Caleb breaths a sigh of relief as he closes the door. He and Nott are safely back at the inn, no longer under the searching gazes of the Crownsguard. “What to do, what to do, what to do…” he mutters under his breath.

“That was some day,” Nott says as she climbs onto the bed.

“Ja, it was.” He paces a bit, nervously, rubbing his arm again. He feels awkward, not sure of where they stand now. You’d think finding out you’re soulmates would make things easier, not harder.

“It’s a bit of a strange bunch we’re matched up with.” Nott sighs. “Which isn’t a bad thing. At least they didn’t run away from me being a Goblin.” Another, softer sigh. “You’re not running away.”

Caleb stops pacing, turns to her. “Of course not.” It didn’t even cross his mind. “We are a team, and friends, and now soulmates. We have each other’s backs.” At least he thinks so. “Right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Of course.” Still, she curls in a bit on herself. “I just… I can’t show you, or them, my marks. Like. I really can’t, even if I want to.”

Caleb sits down next to her, takes hold of one of her hands. “You don’t have to explain.” He swallows, which sounds loud in his own ears. “I cannot show mine either.”

“…Really? But you showed…” Nott starts hesitantly, and Caleb nods.

“The cards. I did. It is the only one I can show.” The only one not taken from him, the only one to show up _after._ “The others I cannot.”

“Okay.” Nott grabs his hand back, keeps a firm hold of it. “So we’re still a team.”

“We are.”

Jester bounds up the stairs and knocks on the door. “Caleb, Nott? Are you in there?” she asks and knocks again as the others come up behind her. “Hello?”

“Give them a second, Jester,” Fjord says with a chuckle just before the door opens up. Nott peeks out from a small gap and Jester waves at her.

“Hi! We said we were all going to talk and now we’re all here, so we should do that talking?”

“Uh, yeah, come in,” Nott says and she scurries back into the room, getting onto the bed next to Caleb. Jester frowns.

“This is a really small room for the two of you. Are you like, in a relationship? I know Nott is small but wouldn’t a double bed be more comfortable?”

“No, no, we’re not dating,” Nott denies immediately at the same time as Caleb is shaking his head.

“We are friends, but nothing more than that,” Caleb adds, shifting over a bit as Molly drops down next to him on the bed. “And apparently soulmates. That was news for us as well.”

“But then why the tiny room?” Jester asks, wrinkling her nose a bit. This in has way better rooms, this one doesn’t even have a window!

“It is cheap, it is safer than camping outside, and that is all we needed,” Caleb says, frowning a bit back at her.

“Should we go to another room then, where we have more space?” she suggests, but even as she’s speaking, Beau closes the door and settles against it, and Fjord simply sat down against a wall, leaving the single little stool to her.

“I am not standing up until I have to after the day I’ve had,” Molly says and that seems to be that. She isn’t happy about it, but still manages to smile a bit as she sits down on the stool.

“Alright, so,” Beau starts. “Just so you two know as well, they told the four of us not only to not leave town, but not leave the tavern either. The Lawmaster here doesn’t fuck around and seems to think we’re trouble.” She snorts. “I mean she’s not wrong, but not in the case she’s dealing with.”

“Right?” Molly says with a smirk, and his tail sweeps happily overhead, a lot more relaxed than Jester saw him at the stockade. “With the circus we always make a bit of noise coming through, but they’re barking up the wrong tree with this one.”

And now Jester is imagining the Crownsguard barking up at Molly and the performers in a tree. She giggles, maybe she should draw that for the Traveller. He’d like that.

“Either way it seems like we’ll be stuck here for a bit,” Fjord says. “I hope you two are willing to stick around while this is getting solved? Get to know each other a bit, if you have no pressing matters to attend to?”

“Yeah, I mean, I’d like that,” Nott says and she taps on her mask. “So far I already like talking to you guys without having to hide behind this thing. Most people start screaming.”

“Of course we’re not going to scream, you’re our soulmate for a reason!” Jester says happily. “Oh, that reminds me!” She jumps up, and starts messing with the layers of fabric she’s wearing. “Now we’re in private, so I can show you all!”

She pushes part of her skirt and smallclothes down, so her soulmarks are visible on her hip. “Look, there you all are!”

Both Caleb and Fjord seem to choke a bit on nothing but air, and Jester laughs. Caleb leans back but watches, while Fjord looks at the ceiling. To be fair, he’s seen them already. But it’s funny how awkward they are.

“Oh, yours are in a circle, that looks cool,” Beau says, leaning in. Molly and Nott also come closer to look.

“I like how pretty they all look like that,” Jester agrees. She always had, even when they weren’t complete yet.

Wait a minute…

“But Molly! How are you so old? I thought you were a toddler!”

“Shit, she’s right!” Beau exclaims as they all turn their gazes on Mollymauk.

Molly starts to laugh. “Oh, for real? I only showed up for you two years ago then? That’s great!” He laughs harder at the confused faces around him.

“But how…” Caleb mutters, looking more confused than Molly has seen him so far on this very weird day.

“I’m a mythical being that spawned into this world, fully grown, instead of being born,” he tells them, just to see how they react.

Silence.

Then Fjord snorts. “Sure. And I am a dragon in disguise.” He shakes his head. “If you don’t want to tell, that’s fine, but just say so.”

“Being soulmates doesn’t mean you have to share your life story right away. Or, you know, at all I guess.” Beau leans back against the door, looking at everyone in turn. “I’d like to know shit about you guys, but the only things that are required to be shared are things that put the others in danger. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Fjord says. Molly thinks about it for a second, then nods. That seems fair. The others seem to agree as well, though Caleb a bit slower than the rest of them. Must be an interesting story there.

Then he realizes that these people already know things are weird with him. He could keep bullshitting them, or he could tell the one group that has good reason to see him as his own person…

“I’m not sure what happened to me. I, for the lack of a better word, woke up two years ago,” Molly tells them. An interested hush falls over the group. “I woke up, with not a single memory. I woke up underground. Buried. Gustav’s people found me, named me. They seem to think I have amnesia, but nothing is coming back, not even the tiniest bit. I’ve been told that’s rare, with multiple years passing. You telling me that my mark showed up so recently? Yeah, this is something else.”

More silence.

“So I’m Mollymauk Tealeaf, at your service,” he says with a grin, trying to lighten the serious mood a bit, at it seems to work, some smiles appear.

“I’m Jester Lavorre, from Nicodranas. My mother is The Ruby of the Sea, I don’t know my dad, and I’m a Cleric. My god is the Traveller.” Jester now pulls down the clothes from her shoulder, showing a soulmark in the shape of an arch, very similar to the holy symbol she carries. “He’s also my soulmate!”

…What?


End file.
